I've only seen Bishop play one good game, and that was game 5. Even last year, Bishop has always looked like a goalie who benefits from luck and solid defensive play around him. If the Wings had players who could finish, we could have swept the bolts.

Personally, I think Mrazek is hitting that sophmore slump goalies seem to go through. He will be elite, you can see it when he continues to get into position and battle to get in the way of the puck, he's just not on top of his game. I go with the hot hand in Howard for a little while and if he falters, Mrazek will need to step in and get the job done. It's just the way it goes, feels like when one goalie falters, the other has stepped up and we find ways to get points.

The problem we have with scoring comes from our defence. Our top 6 guys (Larkin, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Nyquist, Tatar and Abdelkader) represent 57% of our goals. After you get past their contributions of 30+ points, our next best point producer (Mike Green) has 21 points. In the past, our best point producers usually included the top line and top 2 Dmen. That is the biggest difference I see - the past several years there has been little offence from the D and it all falls on the forwards. If the defence can get shots through from the point, it should be easier for us to be more consistent with our scoring.

Is it that he's #1? Or is he being given a chance to get pucks to hit him again? He's no doubt our best goalie, but wouldn't it be better to have your best goalie against the Rangers tomorrow?
I think it should be Howard tonight and Mrazek tomorrow, but I'm not in charge.

Getting a win is a team thing, it's not solely the goaltender's fault. Howard allowed 2 goals, that should be enough to win most games in this league. Both our goalies are playing well, Mrazek has faced far more shots on average and as a result has a worse GAA overall. Mrazek is certainly the future but he and Howard are on par with each other at this point in time, at least the way I see it.

1. I can't tell if that's actually the puck (I assume it is)
2. I can't tell if the puck is fully across the line (other angles demonstrate it from what I've seen)
3. From an unbiased perspective, this image does not conclusively overturn the call. (couple it with other angles though...)

The perfect result tonight would be a Detroit win and an Ottawa regulation loss. This would clinch all playoff spots in the east, meaning we would be in. Pittsburgh has been slumping lately (as bad as detroit) so Wings just need to take care of their game, let us fans worry about the other one.
Edit: maybe not boston... they can lose and fall out of playoff contention if they like.

While I agree that Hitchcock, Quenneville and Sutter are high level coaches, I don't think Babcock can be likened to Laviolette and Julien. Babcock has a better win% that the big three and 3 cup final appearances with it. Babs is also the fastest coach since bowman to reach 500 regular season wins as well so there's that too. Also, since I chose to look up the stats, Babs regular season win% is way higher than the big 3, so what exactly makes those 3 signifcantly better?

2 things to note about the winner:
1- NHL probably has it in their mind the goal is unreviewable (whereas I think all goals should be)
2- The only point where I see the stick clearly broken is after he makes contact with Allen's pads, at that point the stick is awkwardly bent (thus broken imo) neither the refs, nor abby would have the reaction time to identify that as a broken stick before the puck went in. I think it would be unfair to call it back.
2 things about the officials
1 - The linesmen were absolutely brutal!
2 - the amount of interference let go by both sides was VERY interesting. It wasn't subtle at all.

If there's one thing I ask of the referees, it's consistency. The problem is, they can't call everything. It's not just cause "they're human," it's more because there are just so many calls that could be made, and they can't let the games go on for 4-5 hours. The best I think they can do is to make sure the scoring chances or other big plays don't get stopped because of obstruction type penalties. Let the rest happen.

Howard was not in top form today, but only one of those 7 goals could he have possibly stopped. Our Defence was the problem today and has been for several months now. If our defensive game doesn't get it together we will not be going anywhere in the playoffs. Howard is not THE problem. 19 players hit the ice today, all 19 were not good enough to win in this league.

I'm not sure if it was just because we only get one game in the West coast cities, or if our fans were just really into games lately, but I've noticed an awesome trend of some great road crowds this past month and more. Just wanted to say I love hearing the crowd cheer for us at road games, specifically Dallas, Arizona, Colorado and even last night was a pretty good road cheer. Great to be a part of such an enthusiastic fanbase!

13-1-0 when leading after 1
21-0-3 when leading after 2
9-6-1 when trailing after 1
9-11-2 when trailing after 2 (we have the best point % when trailing)
Yes, the 3 goals against is concerning, but we are finding ways to win when leading. It's not always pretty, but we get it done. If you ask me, we are a team that relies on the intermission to get refocused and ready to go.

10 points isn't a big enough lead? We don't need to worry about Washington at all, they aren't in our division.
As far as I'm concerned, this is the toughest stretch of 10 games we have all year (ending with the Rangers first game back at home.) Despite Gustavsson playing great last night, I would put Jimmy in net against any playoff team. I don't know why people dislike Jimmy, but in this season he is absolutely the best goaltender we can put in goal.

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